Apparatus for Determining Association Variables

1. A computer-implemented method for determining one or more migraine triggers for an individual, comprising: accessing one or more variables including user data pertaining to the individual, wherein the user data includes one or more of: environmental information, behavioral information, a physiological parameter, demographic information and dietary information; determining, via the computer, multiple statistical relationships between temporal patterns of occurrence of pairs of variables in a set of variables and an onset vector for the individual, wherein determining a statistical relationship between a temporal pattern of occurrence of a given pair of variables and the onset vector involves: calculating a first product between the onset vector and a temporal pattern of occurrence of a first variable in the given pair of variables, wherein the onset vector includes one or more temporal onsets corresponding to migraines of the individual, and wherein the first product includes contributions from presence and absence information in the temporal pattern of occurrence of the first variable; and calculating a second product between a result of the first product and a temporal pattern of occurrence of a second variable in the given pair of variables, wherein the second product includes contributions from presence and absence information in the temporal pattern of occurrence of the second variable; selecting a subset of the statistical relationships based on a statistical significance criteria; determining a ranking of the number of occurrences of variables in a subset of the pairs of variables associated with the selected subset of the statistical relationships; and identifying one or more of the variables in the subset of the pairs of variables as the one or more migraine triggers based on the determined ranking.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temporal pattern of occurrence of the first variable is during a first set of time intervals and the temporal pattern of occurrence of a second variable is during a second set of time intervals, and wherein a given time interval in a given set of time intervals, which can include one of the first set of time intervals and the second set of time intervals, precedes a corresponding given temporal onset in the one or more temporal onsets.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein time intervals in at least one of the first set of time intervals and the second set of time intervals are offset in time from the one or more temporal onsets.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein time intervals in the first set of time intervals are different than time intervals in the second set of time intervals.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying one or more additional migraine triggers of the individual based on the presence of the identified migraine triggers in one or more groups of predetermined migraine triggers that were previously determined for one or more other individuals.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more identified migraine triggers at least in part induces a migraine in the individual when the individual is exposed to at least one of the one or more migraine triggers.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the statistical relationships include contributions from presence and absence information in the onset vector.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a recommendation to the individual based on the one or more identified migraine triggers.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the statistical relationships include statistical values that are metrics of a degree of association between the temporal patterns of occurrence of pairs of variables and the onset vector.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the statistical values are determined using a non-parametric statistical analysis technique.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the ranking is based on the statistical values associated with the selected subset of the statistical relationships.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving information including the onset vector and temporal patterns of occurrence of the variables in the set of variables.

13. A computer-program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer-program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium and a computer-program mechanism embedded therein to determine one or more migraine triggers for an individual, the computer-program mechanism including: instructions for accessing one or more variables including user data pertaining to the individual, wherein the user data includes one or more of: environmental information, behavioral information, a physiological parameter, demographic information and dietary information: instructions for determining multiple statistical relationships between temporal patterns of occurrence of pairs of variables in a set of variables and an onset vector for the individual, wherein determining a statistical relationship between a temporal pattern of occurrence of a given pair of variables and the onset vector involves: calculating a first product between the onset vector and a temporal pattern of occurrence of a first variable in the given pair of variables, wherein the onset vector includes one or more temporal onsets corresponding to migraines of the individual, and wherein the first product includes contributions from presence and absence information in the temporal pattern of occurrence of the first variable; and calculating a second product between a result of the first product and a temporal pattern of occurrence of a second variable in the given pair of variables, wherein the second product includes contributions from presence and absence information in the temporal pattern of occurrence of the second variable; instructions for selecting a subset of the statistical relationships based on a statistical significance criteria; instructions for determining a ranking of the number of occurrences of variables in a subset of the pairs of variables associated with the selected subset of the statistical relationships; and instructions for identifying one or more of the variables in the subset of the pairs of variables as the one or more migraine triggers based on the determined ranking.

14. An apparatus to determine one or more migraine triggers for an individual, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory; and at least one program module, the program module stored in the memory and configurable to be executed by the processor, the program module including: instructions for accessing one or more variables including user data pertaining to the individual, wherein the user data includes one or more of: environmental information, behavioral information, a physiological parameter, demographic information and dietary information; instructions for determining multiple statistical relationships between temporal patterns of occurrence of pairs of variables in a set of variables and an onset vector for the individual, wherein determining a statistical relationship between a temporal pattern of occurrence of a given pair of variables and the onset vector involves: calculating a first product between the onset vector and a temporal pattern of occurrence of a first variable in the given pair of variables, wherein the onset vector includes one or more temporal onsets corresponding to migraines of the individual, and wherein the first product includes contributions from presence and absence information in the temporal pattern of occurrence of the first variable; and calculating a second product between a result of the first product and a temporal pattern of occurrence of a second variable in the given pair of variables, wherein the second product includes contributions from presence and absence information in the temporal pattern of occurrence of the second variable; instructions for selecting a subset of the statistical relationships based on a statistical significance criteria; instructions for determining a ranking of the number of occurrences of variables in a subset of the pairs of variables associated with the selected subset of the statistical relationships; and instructions for identifying one or more of the variables in the subset of the pairs of variables as the one or more migraine triggers based on the determined ranking.